Scott administration will not appeal prison privatization case

[Roland99]

Source: Orlando Sentinel

Gov. Rick Scott has decided not to appeal a recent court ruling that knocked down the state’s plans to privatize 29 prisons in South Florida, a major setback for companies like Boca Raton-based GEO and Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, which stood to earn millions out of the deal.

Last month, Leon County Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford ruled that the plan was unconstitutional. Privatization was legal, she wrote, but the manner in which the Legislature drafted the plan was not.

This past spring, lawmakers tucked the privatization plan into the budget language, instead of debating it in a separate bill, making it easier to pass and win Scott’s signature. Republican backers of the plan argued it would save money for the nation’s third-largest prison system.

The Police Benevolent Association said that those promises were a sham and that the state hadn’t even done a thorough enough analysis to even know how much could be potentially saved.

Read more: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/10/scott-administration-will-not-appeal-prison-privatization-case.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+news%2Fpolitics%2Fpoliticalpulse+%28Central+Florida+Political+Pulse%

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. And I'm supposed to like Republicans... uh...

Thank goodness the courts still have a sense of decency.

And by the way, which legislators had this horrific legislation tucked into the budget language?

Oh, never mind. I found this: http://floridaindependent.com/50687/geo-group-cca-private-prisons

Apparently, Marco (piece-of-crap) Rubio has been receiving kickbacks from the correctional corporations. I'm going to look up those correctional corporations. They also are a piece of crap, as is that criminal, Gov. Rick Scott. He needs to be in prison himself.

[The Wielding Truth]

3. How can these Republicans be so void of conscience? Love your quote.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

4. Well, some scientists say that Repukes and other right wingnuts tend to have...

a fear of change, and they love authoritarians and strict, punitive rules and laws. There's no conscience in Repukes, and they have zero compassion for the suffering. They do adore and worship evil, however.

And thanks! (About the quote that is).

[Sarah Ibarruri]

2. Here's my e-mail to GEO corporation, which is a correctional corporation

"You people are a piece of crap.
The sort of business you run, reminds one of The Third Reich.
Remarkable, that such businesses are permitted to exist."

I just sent the same message to Correctional Corporation of America.

My God, there's SO MUCH WRONG in America, and almost all of it with corporations.

[dadzilla]

5. The fact..

.. they had to tuck it hidden in another bill ought to be the clear sign this was a bad idea.

[Amonester]

6. Yep. The question is, how much off the 'deal' was going to kick back

straight into politician "campaign funds" bank accounts.

It is ALWAYS the same question.

[onethatcares]

13. it's not kickback, it's kick ahead

the next campaign is always waiting and btw, did you know the speaker of the house for the floriduh legislature in 2016 has already been picked?

since jebby, this state has sucked worse every year.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

7. Watch "Sing Your Song" doc on Belafonte. Finishes with today's slavery - our prisons

[Johnny2X2X]

8. Freedom

I consider the privatization of the Prison industry to be the most grave and direct threat to our freedoms as Americans.

[Marazinia]

9. If it's not the most grave threat

It's high on the list.

[Pacifist Patriot]

12. Indeed

[Auggie]

10. They'll try again, of course...

too much money at stake

[AwareOne]

11. Sure they will try again

they didn't let the fact that school vouchers were found unconstitutional stop them from issuing millions of dollars in vouchers, mostly to private religious schools. They just did an end around the law by diverting the public tax dollars to "opportunity scholarships" through tax law schemes. Vouchers continue to grow year after year while the public schools are starved to death.